Placement Exclusions are the reason you built one, years ago, to keep a client’s ads off Audience Network. It’s been sitting quietly in the ad set ever since, doing exactly what you told it to do: block that placement entirely.
It’s about to stop doing that. Not because you changed anything, but because Meta is removing the checkbox that made it work.
On August 20, Meta pushed an in-product notice stating that excluding placements, platforms, devices, and operating systems will no longer be available at the ad set level. There’s no confirmed date, and Meta itself hasn’t published an official announcement, this is based on an in-product notice first reported by Jon Loomer, so treat the exact timeline as unofficial for now. What’s not in question is the replacement mechanic, and it’s worth understanding before the checkboxes actually disappear.
What's Actually Changing
Right now, if you exclude a placement, say, Audience Network or in-stream video, that placement gets zero spend. Off means off.
The replacement is something called a placement value rule. Instead of excluding a placement, you write a rule that adjusts your bid for it, anywhere from a 90 percent decrease to a 1000 percent increase. There’s no option in between that actually reaches zero. A 90 percent cut is still a real bid, and in a cheap enough auction, that bid can still clear and spend.
This means an exclusion you built specifically to keep spend off a placement entirely doesn’t disappear when this rollout completes, it quietly becomes a steep discount instead. The placement can still win the auction. It just costs less when it does.
Reporting suggests this applies specifically to Sales and Leads campaign objectives on the newer multimedia ad creation workflow, with sensitive verticals reportedly exempt, though again, this comes from third-party analysis rather than Meta’s own documentation, so verify against your own account once the change actually reaches it.
Why This Matters More Than It Sounds
For most advertisers, a placement value rule might genuinely work fine. If you were excluding a placement because it underperformed, not because of a hard requirement, a steep bid discount probably gets you close enough to the same outcome.
The real problem is for anyone who built an exclusion as a genuine brand-safety or contractual requirement, not a performance preference. If a client contract says ads must never appear on a specific placement, or a regulatory obligation requires a hard block, a 90 percent discount doesn’t satisfy that requirement. The placement can still show your ad. It just costs more to get there, which isn’t the same as never happening.
Meta’s own justification for this shift is an 11.7 percent lower CPA claim for Advantage+ placements compared to manual placement selection. That number was published without a sample size, a date range, or a vertical breakdown, which means it’s worth treating as a directional claim from Meta rather than an independently verified benchmark.
The One Real Workaround for Placement Exclusions
There is still one hard switch left for Placement Exclusions: account-level Placement Controls, found under Advertising Settings, Account Controls. Unlike the ad-set-level Placement Exclusions being removed, this setting still fully excludes a placement, no discount, actually off.
The catch is scope. Account-level controls apply to the entire ad account, every campaign, every client if you’re an agency running multiple clients through a shared account. There’s no way to apply a hard Placement Exclusion to just one campaign or one client within a shared account using this setting. If your agency structure relies on separate Placement Exclusions per client inside one account, this workaround doesn’t cleanly solve that problem.
What to Do Before the Checkboxes Disappear
Open every Sales and Leads ad set currently using placement exclusions and document exactly what each one excludes. Once the checkboxes are gone, you’ll want that record rather than trying to reconstruct it from memory.
Build the matching placement value rules now, set to the maximum 90 percent decrease, so your account isn’t caught flat-footed on the day this actually rolls out. This won’t fully replicate a hard exclusion, but it gets you as close as the new system allows.
For any placement exclusion tied to a genuine contractual or regulatory requirement, move that account to account-level Placement Controls now rather than waiting. If that account is shared across multiple clients, this is worth flagging to your team immediately, since the scope mismatch needs a real structural decision, not a quick settings change.
Once the change lands, watch your placement breakdown weekly for spend drifting into whichever placement you previously excluded, particularly Audience Network and in-stream video. A 90 percent discount can still mean real spend showing up somewhere you didn’t expect it.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Assuming this change doesn’t apply to you because you haven’t seen the notice yet is risky. Reporting suggests a phased or workflow-specific rollout, so absence of the notice today doesn’t guarantee it stays that way.
Treating a 90 percent bid discount as functionally identical to a hard exclusion is a mistake for any placement tied to a real compliance or contractual requirement. Discount and block are not the same guarantee.
Waiting until the checkboxes actually vanish to figure out your placement value rules means rebuilding under pressure instead of with a clear record of what you’re trying to replicate.
Conclusion
Meta removing placement exclusions isn’t just a UI cleanup. It changes what a “brand-safety exclusion” actually guarantees, from a hard block to a steep discount that a cheap enough auction can still clear. For most advertisers optimizing for performance, that’s a manageable shift. For anyone relying on exclusions to satisfy a contract or a regulatory requirement, it’s a real gap that needs a different fix.
The practical move today is simple. Document every placement exclusion currently active in your account, build the equivalent value rules now, and move any hard-requirement exclusions to account-level Placement Controls before the checkboxes disappear on a date Meta hasn’t announced.
FAQs
1. Is Meta’s removal of Placement Exclusions officially confirmed?
Not through an official Meta announcement. It’s based on an in-product notice first reported by Jon Loomer, with no confirmed rollout date, so verify against your own account rather than assuming a fixed timeline.
2. Can a placement value rule actually replace Placement Exclusions completely?
No. It can decrease a bid by up to 90 percent or increase it by up to 1000 percent, but there’s no setting that reaches an actual zero. A cheap enough auction can still clear a heavily discounted bid.
3. Is there any way to still fully use Placement Exclusions after this change?
Yes, account-level Placement Controls still fully excludes a placement. The limitation is scope, it applies to the entire ad account, not to individual campaigns or clients within a shared account.
4. Should I trust Meta’s claim that removing Placement Exclusions lowers CPA?
Meta cited an 11.7 percent lower CPA figure for Advantage+ placements, but published it without a sample size or date range. Treat it as a directional claim rather than a verified benchmark for your own account.
5. What should agencies managing multiple clients do about Placement Exclusions?
If separate Placement Exclusions per client currently live inside one shared account, flag this internally now, since account-level Placement Controls can’t isolate the change to a single client and a structural decision may be needed.
